Becky Thompson - Can You Actually Hear From The Holy Spirit?

Foreign. Have you ever felt like you just don't hear from the Holy Spirit? Like, I, I don't even know what that relationship is like. I wish I could. I don't even know if I am or not. I'm so excited you're here because we're talking with Becky Thompson. She is an amazing leader, best selling author and she has a book called God so Close and we're going to dive into that. So if you've ever wondered, can I hear from the Holy Spirit the answer? We're just going to talk about that today, so I'm so excited you're here. Becky, thank you so much for joining me.

Hannah, thanks so much for having me on. I'm excited to chat about this important topic.

It really is important and I, I hear a lot of people just in, in my group, sometimes we feel like we don't, we can't hear from the Holy Spirit. And I've, I've heard people say, you know, I wish Jesus was right here and he just tell me what to do and life would be so much easier. But I want to div. Feeling that we're kind of removed from God. So first of all, what even started this? Like, why did you decide to write this book and go into this whole area of interacting with the Holy Spirit?

Sure. Well, this is my eighth resource. And so the first seven really focus primarily on motherhood and hope in motherhood and where God is in the middle of our stories, finding his purpose, finding things like that. But this message, the message of God being close to us is the one that is the drumbeat underneath all of them. It's what I say without saying it in every book and every post and every course. It's that God is near, that he has a good plan for your life because he loves you. And we, we get through Jesus to have this opportunity to connect with the Holy Spirit and know God personally, like for ourselves, face to face.

Yeah.

And, and so that was it. It was just, I felt almost as if I had earned. Earned. Maybe, maybe it was like this, Hannah, let's put it like this. Women had invited me to their table, but they were inviting me sort of to their couch, to their, to their interview where we're sitting down, we're getting more comfortable and I'm like, you've trusted me with this. Now let me tell you some really.

Important stuff because that's, that's intimate, that is going deeper and I'm just going to be like so real with you. Growing up in the church now, I was never we never talked about the Holy Spirit and the church that I grew up, and we never talked about how to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. And when I just started diving into this and really researching this and going to God's word instead of like, going to religion, going to His Word and, and hearing Jesus say, no, you want me to go? Because when I go, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit and you're going to have him in you, I was like, wait, why did I never know this? Why did I never know what I had access to? So why is that? Why is Holy Spirit like this? Like, weird, mysterious, like, ooh, don't talk about it. Or maybe we go overboard and it's all dramatic, like, why?

You know, I think that God has been misunderstood across the centuries. I think that people struggled in the time that Jesus walked the earth to understand who he was and how he was a fulfillment of this promised Messiah. And I think likewise, today we have people and they ex. They. They have been told who God is, and they've been. They've been told that maybe they should be afraid of the Holy Spirit, that only wild ones follow him in that way.

You know, those wild ones.

You know those wild ones, I think they can talk to him in that way. But really, Jesus, like you said in the. In the Book of John to his friends, he's like, it's good that I go, because I'm going to send you a helper, the Spirit of truth. And Jesus says this. The world can't receive him because they never. They neither see him or know him, but you know him, for he's been with you and he will be in you. And so I just feel like the. The heart and cry to know Jesus is answered through the presence of the Holy Spirit. And so I can't speak to why the church is the way the church is. I mean, I. There, like you said, we're just talking about something that exists without really being able to explain, explain it, you know, and by it, I mean the fear of this Holy Spirit, who he is. And we can't really explain why this exists, but the reality is there's this burning desire in the heart of every Christian to really know God, not just know about him, but to know him for ourselves. And Jesus is clear in his word that that happens through the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

Wow. You know what? This is so cool that we're talking about this, because just this month I've been diving into the word ginosko, which that. That word is that Intimate knowing. Like when you know how the Bible says and the husband, wife, knew each other, like, you know what the Bible's talking about. Right. And so this is actually the same word, that intimate connection that we're talking about knowing God. And I think that intimacy is only through the Holy Spirit. And I will tell you just, just from my life, my experience, it was like my walk with Jesus was. It was good. It was nice and clean and it was church girl, pretty. You know what I'm talking about?

Yep, I do.

Okay. All right. It fit all the. All the, you know, check, checklist. Right. And then when I started learning about the Holy Spirit and communing with the Holy Spirit, it's like it took this dry Christian life, which I didn't even know was dry. It took this dry Christian life, and it just made it juicy. It, like, hydrated it. Is that. Is that weird? It's probably weird. Okay.

It's exactly what Jesus meant when he said that he will baptize with fire. We are. You have to be a burning sacrifice. You have to have something for the Holy Spirit to fall on. And he's the oil and he's the fire. He's what saturates those dry places in our hearts and ignites us to burn in love for Jesus and his bride. And so I think a lot of women in the church would say, I. Especially women who've grown up in the church, they say, I love Jesus. I love him.

Oh, yeah.

But it. But it's almost as if I love him. And he's this family member that we've all have stories about, but he's just seems to always be busy or gone or away on business.

Yeah.

And what the Holy Spirit does is he brings Jesus, he resurrects him and his work in our hearts daily. And so we go from knowing about to speaking to. We go from knowing about what God did to experiencing God now. And I like to remind people that still are kind of hesitant that scripture is clear. There's nothing we can do for God apart from God. And so, you know, if you're called into just not just. I hate using that word, but if you're called to love your family as a ministry, if you're called to be a leader, if you're, you know, starting a coaching network, if you're leading small groups, if you're serving in your local church, whatever, whatever God has asked you to do, then he is going to be intimately. There's a great word involved in the doing. And that means that we have to have Communication. Just like in every other relationship, there have. There has to be a dependence of us on him and a trust that he wants to be the good shepherd to lead us. Us. And all of this happens through the power and work of the Holy Spirit. So learning to hear his voice, learning how to trust when he's leading us, that's really what. What God so Close does. But that's really the mission of a lot of what I do.

Yeah. So. So here's my question. If people are watching right now and listening right now, and they're like, that sounds great. What, like, how. Like, what is the next step? How do I even. Is it safe? Is this weird? Is this strange? Like, how do I have a relationship with. With the Holy Spirit? What would you say? Like, like someone who's like. Like, I was. It was like, wait, Holy Spirit. What? You know?

Mm. I. You know, that is the. That's really the woman that God so Close was written to.

Yeah.

It's the woman that goes, I know everything there is to know about Jesus through my. Through the Word, you know, meaning. I've studied my Bible. I've heard the sermons. I feel like I know enough to have conversations. I get it. I get that God is real. I get that he's involved in my life, but he just seems to be connected to everybody. But. Okay, I think that there needs to be. The first step is just asking. Asking God truly to reveal reveals the right word. It's because it's almost as if this covering that we've put over our own eyes, this. This intentional limit on our understanding because we don't want to go too deep or too far. We want to make sure that we're like.

Like, safe. Safe.

Yeah. Safe word. Right. Just want to say, like, who are you really?

Yeah.

God, if you are. If you are eternal, if you are. Let's just be honest. It's hard to fit this in our, like, real life world. I'm sitting at a table in a kitchen. You're sitting there in your studio. Like, in our real life world, we serve an eternal being. We serve an eternal God. And everything that happens here in the natural world, there is a spiritual corresponding event taking place in our lives with everything we do, with every conversation we have. And so when we just ask God to shift our perspective from, you are an eternal being that I love, that I will serve someday, that you're out there and just say, will you show me where you are in the room with me right now? Will you show me what you're up to in my Family, right Now, when you pray those types of prayers, believing that God wants to reveal to your heart his nearness, he will show you. And so when I say he'll show you, I think you have to just. Also, it really starts with believing that God wants to speak to you. You have to believe that God wants to reveal his goodness, his nature and all those things. But you have to get into the Word, which means you have to open your Bible. You have to know what the voice of God sounds like in written text. Because here's the cool thing, Hannah, you know this and I know this, but sometimes we forget this. It's not just a habit of reading our Bible because it's like the right thing to do. And good Christians read their Bibles, know all the scriptures, and they memorize them so they can important, but it's. But we read the Word because our spiritual person, that exists in our flesh, our spiritual person only understands the words on the page if the Holy Spirit gives them meaning. And so as we're doing this simple act of reading the Bible and reading the stories, the Holy Spirit is speaking to you in that moment. And here's the great thing about the Holy Spirit. Jesus said he will teach, he will guide. He will not speak on his own authority, but he'll speak what he hears the Father saying. And so as we close the Bible at the end of our dedicated reading time, or the five minutes while we're standing at the counter, while the meal is cooked, whatever your life looks like as you close the Bible, the voice of the Holy Spirit is not silenced. As you close the Word, as you set it, there it is, the indwell. Indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your heart. He is still speaking to you. How do we know this? Because the Bible is clear about the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer. Indwelling means like his spirit is leading your spirit. That's just how that works. Okay, his spirit's leading your spirit. But this isn't. This isn't like some crazy event. If. And I say that. I know I'm kind of getting off track, so. No, no, no, I'm tracking, bringing it back. I feel like. I feel like there's a woman out here and I'm trying to bring her in. Like she's out here trying to. I'm trying to bring her in. If you're a Christian, right, you believe that someday this earthly flesh is going to wear out and you will be resurrected to new life and a new heavenly body in heaven, like that is, that is across the. You Know, across the denominations, Christians believe in a supernatural event that will take place at the end of our being.

Yeah.

And we. And so we believe in the supernatural already. Is what I'm trying to.

Right, right, right. We already are supernatural people.

Yes. And you believe it's going to happen someday. What I try to remind women of right here at the beginning, like, beginning of this type of walk in their life. Okay, yeah, I know you're tracking with me. What I try to remind them is when Jesus made you a new creation, when you said, I need you, I believe that you are the Son.

Give you my life.

Yeah, give you my life. You're the son of the living God, and you were resurrected from the dead. When that happens, and you become eternally alive in that moment. You become eternally alive in that moment, which means you have access to things in the spirit. You have access to the Holy Spirit that you did not have before that moment. And so what I try to do is tear all the flesh, which sounds horrible, but I try to tear all the fleshly constraints off of our eternal lives today. And say that you get to have a spiritual experience with God right now by opening your word, by believing he wants to speak to you, and by listening, truly listening with your heart and asking him to teach you how he speaks to you personally.

Yeah, no, I am tracking. I think other people are tracking, too. That makes sense. And I think sometimes we. Because we are in the world, we're not of the world, but because we're in the world, we're living out this natural life. We're paying bills, we're having conversations, we're eating, you know, making dinner, we're doing all that stuff. And I think sometimes we become so indoctrinated in the natural world that we just forget that we are truly supernatural beings.

Yes.

And when. It is almost like a process of remembering who we are created to be. And I think so many battles and so much strange stress people hold on to, and so much pain. Not pain, but suffering is because we're trying to do battles naturally instead of just Holy Spirit, you're in me and I'm going to connect to you. Like, I'm going to disconnect from the world as my source. And I'm just going to connect with you. You are all sufficient. You are everything. You are my source. That's why Jesus, before he died like he was. I always think, you know, that last message he's trying to tell his disciples is like, stay plugged in. Stay plugged in. I'm going to send The Holy Spirit. And it's not like a pressure thing. I don't want anyone to feel like, oh, I got to get this right. Because I think as you're opening up your heart to say holy Spirit, read your word to me. Like, reveal yourself to me. Show me where you are. I just open up my life to you, and I want you to dwell in me. Like, you've. Like, I've never perceived you before. Open up perception so I can sense you at a different place. I think when we start this relationship, God is so loving that I feel like even if we hear him wrong, he's like, that's okay. It's. Oh, there's no pressure to get it right. Because, you know, with our kids, you know, when they're little and they don't always, you know, follow through correctly, there's misunderstandings, and we're not like, you know, I told you that she should have known. It's like, oh, well, let me explain to you. Let me teach you in a different way. And God is so loving that he'll. He will. You know, the Holy Spirit is our counselor, companion, our advocate, and he will help us even in those places where we could get it wrong. So I just want people to know when I start this relationship with the Holy Spirit and when I'm just listening to God at a different level, there's no gauge if I get it perfect or not. I can show up imperfect.

Yes. As. As. As we can with our relationship with Jesus. Because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one. And we come to Jesus in our brokenness. We come to Jesus daily saying, make me whole, make me new. You know, this. Daily dying to self and being resurrected with Jesus and living this new life. And it's the Holy Spirit that's doing that restorative work in us. He's continually revealing Jesus to us. And so what I want to. I think it's important for women to know that might be going, you know, I felt that before, but I haven't felt that in a long time. Like, what's happened in my life.

Yeah.

Because I think there are some women that are going, you know, I'd love to start this, But I think there are some women that are like, I remember that season. Like, I remember that season when he was close. I remember that season when I knew him like that. I remember when I could hear him like that. And he just seemed so distant.

Yeah.

The proximity of God to us, it doesn't change because he is. We are his temple. And he.

He.

He indwells within us, the presence of Jesus hasn't. Hasn't left you. It hasn't lifted. The Holy Spirit hasn't left you, my friend. But what's happened is the, like, we've talked about the life, the daily, the in and outs of it all. It's. It's pulled our attention. And, you know, so often we think about that story with Mary and Martha, and it's just so overused in the church. There's just. There's so many other good examples, right? But if you're watching or listening and you're thinking, well, what story? These two sisters have this encounter with Jesus, and he was already their friend. You know, he had already spent a lot of time with them. He loved them. He loved their brother Lazarus. And, you know, one sister sits at the feet of Jesus. The other, other sister is serving and taking care of the house guests and doing the work. The work that had to be done, right?

Someone's got to do it.

And she comes to Jesus and she's annoyed with her sister. I'm understanding, I'm reading through the lines there in Scripture. And she doesn't ask Jesus, will you ask her? She tells Jesus, tell her to get up and help me. And Jesus says, I'm not going to take this away from her because she has sat at my feet. She has chosen the one thing. And the Lord says to Martha, this. He says, martha, Martha, you are concerned with many things, but Mary has chosen the one thing. And I'm paraphrasing here. And the idea is this, that there is one thing that's needed in our lives. There's one thing, one source, one fountain, one living water, one bread of life, one person that can sustain all of the many things that we worry about. And so this whole conversation that we're having here today is just really this invitation. Whether you know him like this yourself or whether you're just having an opportunity to reconnect and turn back, Jesus is just saying, I want you to focus on the one thing. And that's me. It's me. And. And he loves you enough to be with you. He tells his disciples in John, he says, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. And so we know that when the Holy Spirit comes, it's just as if Jesus himself has walked into the room. The kind, loving, not angry, not frustrated, not annoyed, not wish we had done it all differently or better or right. The one that just says, come as you are, sit at my feet. Let's have a real conversation about what you need, Daughter and this is how Jesus comes to us, through the gift of his Holy Spirit. Amen. That's so good. I'm aiming my own words.

No, no, it's good.

I need to hear it today, too.

I'm amending my own words. That is awesome. That's like the quote of the day. I'm amending my own words. Just. Okay. For everyone out there, I'm amending my own words. But it is so true.

Jesus's words.

It's Jesus's words. It is. It is. There is one thing, and I do feel your heart right now. And there is someone who's like, I remember when it was vibrant and when I felt so close to him and something shifted. And the thing is that that was you that shifted. And it's okay. There is no judgment being held over you. There's now no condemnation for those in Christ. And so the beautiful thing is when you said, it's like Jesus walks in the room, I really see that as love invading our life. Whatever situation we're in right now, just let love invade. And that that's the Holy Spirit, because he loves us so much that he's willing to dwell in us. I mean, God looked everywhere to find the perfect, most beautiful, luxurious temple for his Spirit to dwell in, and he chose us. Like, it's just. It's just incredible. So just, you know, alongside you, I want to encourage people who are listening or watching today. Today, Jesus said, behold, I stand at the door and knock if anyone opens. He doesn't say, I'm going to go in and judge. He doesn't even say, I'm going to go in and have a cerebral conversation with you. And he doesn't even say, I'm going to go in and tell you what to do next. He says, I'm going to come in and eat with you. Like, that is relationship, you know, just hanging out and dwelling with him. So I just want to thank you so much, guys. If you have not gotten a copy of God so Close, make sure you do. And I want. So people are going to want to know, where do I get more of Becky Thompson? So how did they get more of you?

Well, you can find me@becky thompson.com and I'm on Instagram and Facebook. I also lead a community of moms at night praying over on Facebook. There's, I think almost there's 1.8 million of us now, girl. Yes, I know, right? And that's at Midnight mom devotional. So we pray for moms nightly there. And yeah, so Instagram, Facebook, all those places. If you search Becky Thompson, I show up. And if you search Midnight Mom Devotional, I show up.

Beautiful, Becky. Thank you so much for hanging out with us, Hannah.

I loved our conversation. Thanks for having me.

Absolutely. Guys, dig into this. Let the Holy Spirit dwell in you. You are going to live a life that's blessed like crazy.